1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for spraying animals and more particularly to an electrically controlled automatic spraying device for cleaning and chemically treating animals.
2. Previous Art
Hairy warts (digital dermatitis) is a hard-to-treat condition that can remove cattle from production for extended periods of time. Effects of hairy wart lesions on dairy cattle include severe lameness, walking on toes, clubbed hooves, loss of body weight, decreased milk yield and decreased fertility. Extended infection of hairy warts causes economic loss to dairy producers.
Although the precise cause of this wartlike disease is unknown, significant progress has been made in understanding the disease process. Scientific names include papillomatous digital dermatitis, digital papillomatosis and digital dermatitis. Common names include foot warts, heel warts, hairy foot warts, strawberry foot disease and raspberry heel.
Additional foot problems for livestock include sole ulcers, foot rot, heel cracks and white line separations.
Control of hairy warts and associated foot diseases has proven difficult. One form of control is to treat the larger clinically active lesions, which are a source of infection, by surgical removal. Additional treatments for complete healing may be necessary. This process is laborious, time consuming and expensive, particularly when dealing with large herds.
Autogenous Wart vaccines have proven ineffective. Formalin foot bathing fixates living tissues and inhibits the healing process.
Topical application of acidic solutions or antibiotics have been found to be effective. For any topical treatment to be successful it is important to clean the affected areas to provide good exposure of the lesion and penetration of the treatment solution. Another type of topical solution is a treated foam which adheres to the hooves. Individual cleaning of hooves and subsequent application of topical solutions is also laborious, time consuming and expensive.
For easy application of topical solutions to the hooves of many animals, foot baths have been employed. Most commercial foot baths are thirty inches wide, four feet long and six inches deep. These commercial foot baths hold approximately thirty five gallons of treatment solution. Most "home-made" baths are also constructed to be about the same length as commercial foot baths.
The animals are walked through the foot bath while either entering or exiting particular areas, such as milking parlors, shearing stalls, feeding stalls, etc. Products commonly used in foot baths to treat foot problems include copper sulfate, formaldehyde, zinc sulfate and rock salt.
If antibiotics are used, treatment solutions in the foot bath are rotated to allow the antibiotics to be spread out over a period of time to decrease resistance build-up.
Although foot baths are easy to use, they are not the most effective method of treatment and prevention of foot diseases. Foot baths are inefficient and costly for several reasons, some of which are outlined below.
First, experimentation and experience have shown that the length of the foot bath is directly correlated to the effectiveness of the treatment solution. The longer the bath, the greater the duration of exposure to the treatment and prevention solution. Applicants have found that the commonly used four foot long baths are not long enough for proper cleaning of the feet and subsequent exposure of the lesions to the treatment solution.
Second, as the animals enter the foot bath there is a high probability that manure attached to the animals hooves will be carried into the foot bath or that the animal will defecate into the treatment solution. Foot baths are liquid filled reservoirs that hold all environmental contaminants. The manure rapidly degrades the treatment solution and renders it ineffective.
Third, depending upon environmental conditions, the animals may also have layers of mud and dirt clinging to the feet. On average, animals walk through a traditional foot bath for five seconds or less. This is not enough time to effectively clean the hooves to allow proper exposure to the treatment solution.
Fourth, a high level of management of the foot bath is required. The treatment solution must be changed at specified intervals to maintain efficacy of the treatment solution after several animals pass through the bath. Also, different types of foot diseases require different types of treatment and prevention products and therefore different degrees of foot bath management. If the foot bath is not changed and re-charged accordingly, the efficacy of the treatment solution is greatly reduced. Applicants have found that more than fifty percent of the foot baths in use are not properly managed. Therefore, the animals receive little or no benefit from the treatment solution.
Fifth, animals experiencing foot problems generally walk slower than healthy animals. Therefore, the afflicted animals are the last animals through the foot bath, when the bath is at its most inefficient, rather than the first animals through the bath, when the bath is the most effective.
Sixth, many of the products available for the treatment and prevention of foot diseases are not labeled for use in foot bath applications and/or are difficult to get into solution, for example, copper sulfate and zinc sulfate.
Seventh, many products do not lend themselves well for a foot bath type of application, such as antibiotics. Antibiotics degrade quickly when exposed to organic material.
Eighth, most foot baths are permanently fixed. This prevents a farmer from locating the bath at different locations on the facility which may be more advantageous for foot bath usage from time to time.
Ninth, most foot baths are not modular for providing the farmer with the option of using the wash portion located separately form the treatment portion. Modularity also gives the buyer the option of which freight company is best for delivery of the device because the buyer is not limited by particular size and weight constraints of various freight companies.
In summary, Applicants have found that improper management, organic contamination, improper use of treatment and prevention products, and the tendency for target animals to be the last through the foot bath, all greatly reduce the efficacy and cost effectiveness of foot baths.
Therefore, there is a great need for an apparatus to provide more effective application of foot disease treatment solutions that are easy to use, even for producers having large herds.
Devices with various mechanisms that trigger automatic spraying of animals such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,063,880; 4,987,861; 4,334,504 and 3,884,192 have been utilized in animal husbandry. Each of these patents is designed to spray the entire body of an animal with a small amount of toxic chemicals, such as insecticides or disinfectants for controlling cattle grubs, face flies, heel flies, infectious pink eye and lice. The devices are not suitable for use with disease prevention and treatment solutions because 1) they spray a small amount of a solution on an animal that, 2) has not been cleaned. In order for a treatment solution to be effective, it must be applied to cleaned wounds and lesions and in an amount sufficient to affect the area. Additionally, disinfectants and pesticides are non-corrosive, while treatment solutions tend to be corrosive. Therefore, the use of treatment solutions in the insecticide spraying devices would degrade the seals employed in the valves and pumps in these devices.
Additionally, these devices are unsuitable for treating dairy cattle because they will allow chemicals to cover the udder of an animal. If the udder is sprayed with insecticides or disinfectants, the likelihood of residuals contaminating the milk produced is increased.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,763,828 is specifically designed for spraying liquid on the udder of an animal. It is not designed or able to deliver a solution to any other parts of an animal for treatment and prevention of diseases.
Also, the aforementioned devices do not take into consideration the importance of precleaning an animal to increase exposure of infected areas to the treatment solutions being applied. Precleaning is especially important because the animals usually have manure, mud or other organic materials covering the damaged areas, which must be cleaned off before application of the treatment and prevention solutions for effectiveness of the solutions.
What is needed is a device which is highly effective at preventing and treating diseases in animals.
What is needed is a device which is highly effective at preventing and treating foot diseases in livestock.
What is also needed is a device which will clean the hooves of livestock for proper exposure of infected areas of the hooves prior to application of treatment solutions.
What is also needed is a device which will clean the hooves of livestock for proper exposure of healthy hooves prior to application of prevention solutions.
What is also needed is a device which can fulfill the above functions without contaminating the udder of dairy cattle.
What is also needed is a device which is easy for producers and breeders to use and requires little maintenance.
What is also needed is a device which is easy for animals to walk through during normal maintenance.